Michael Menaker *60

Michael died Feb. 14, 2021, in Charlottesville, Va.

Born May 19, 1934, in Vienna, Austria, Michael earned a bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore in 1955 and a Ph.D. in biology from Princeton in 1960 before serving as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. 

A giant in the field of circadian rhythms, Michael was widely considered one of the pioneers in the physiological analysis and identification of circadian pacemakers in the vertebrate nervous and endocrine systems. His groundbreaking discoveries included the first single-gene circadian mutation in mammals and the existence of widespread circadian oscillators in peripheral tissues in mammals. The National Science Foundation Center for Biological Timing was conceived and established under his watch.

Michael’s academic career included faculty positions in the Department of Zoology at the University of Texas, Austin; at the University of Oregon, where he served as director of the Institute of Neuroscience; and as Commonwealth Professor of Biology at the University of Virginia from 1987 until his retirement in 2020.

He published some 200 peer-reviewed papers and earned numerous awards and recognitions.

Predeceased by his wife, Shirley, Michael is survived by his daughter, Ellen; son, Nicholas; three grandchildren; and his brother, Thomas.

Graduate alumni memorials are prepared by the APGA.